Televisions typically display only TV programming. In the past, it has been proposed to turn TV's into devices for web browsing. Examples are shown in the following US Patents and/or Applications: 20010039658; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,745,223; 6,631,523; 20010018771; U.S. Pat. No. 6,886,178. With a typical television system, unlike in a computer environment, a user typically does not have a keyboard. Computer-based Internet web browsers rely on the keyboard to enter random URLs. Normally, lacking this convenience, a television browser would have to rely on alternate methods of browser control or subject the user to a tedious process of mapping the numeric keyboard of a standard TV remote control to the alphabet; this is assuming that the television system has an Internet connection. This method of entry is common and is most often used in basic cell phone text entry which is time consuming and inconvenient.
In the past, Internet browsing has been provided over conventional television sets. This is known as “Web TV.” A keyboard is provided with “Web TV” but this function of the television set exists independently of TV programming. The TV may either be a web browser or a TV receiver but not both.
Advertisers who sponsor programming realize that viewers might like to gain immediate access to web sites featuring products displayed on advertising. Also, TV programmers realize that viewers might wish to access web sites related to the television program currently being offered. At present, the only way this can be done is with a separate computer system. Furthermore, the web pages of interest may be searched or determined by using a search engine if such web pages are not prominently displayed in TV programming and/or advertising, and even then, the URLs for such web pages may be entered via a keyboard on a conventional PC.